A Two-State Bike Ride

Happy Saturday! I hope wherever you are, you have as beautiful of weather as we do here in New Jersey. Sorry Mom and Dad, I know it’s been snowing in Iowa (even though it was 80 degrees last week). I swear, the Midwest is the only place where you can potentially end up wearing your winter coat and flip flops in the same 24 hour span. Ridic.

On this lovely day, I went for a nice little 3 hour bike ride with my team. By the way, I’ve been trying to think of a bike name (she needs a name!) for a long time. (Is that weird?!) I think I want to call her Penelope, but I feel like I stole that from someone else. (Sorry in advance if I stole your bike name!)

Brendan has been trying to help me think of a name ever since I got my bike. I wanted something that reminded me of a strong girl who doesn’t give up. Penelope absolutely does NOT make me think of that, but whatever. I thought it was cute. However, when I told him, he replied with: “Ugh. Better your bike than our kid”. Haha. (NO I’m not pregnant, don’t even go there.) Regardless, I like the name so Penelope it is!

Today my team started in New Jersey and rode up through New York and back, as usual. However, we went much further into New York than we have in the past. We rode along the water through the cutest little towns ever. Our turnaround point was like cyclist heaven (or baked good heaven?); a little shop right off the main road with tons of bike racks, free water to refill your bottles, gels, bars, gatorade, baked goods, etc. Evidently, tons of cyclists stop there to refuel. I’d always heard of this magical place but had never made it there.

On the way back, the hills definitely felt tough on my legs.

After our ride, I ran 30 minutes across the George Washington Bridge and back. And then back across again. And again. (It’s short but the views are so beautiful!) Running felt INCREDIBLE, finally. I think my heart rate was way too high though…I need to figure out all those heart rate zone shenanigans that triathletes focus on…AKA finally read more about the numbers and calculations that always scared me about triathlon training. (Probably why I avoided them for so long!) Can someone please do the math for me?

Actually, on Thursday I had to do a brick workout (bike then run) and for the run portion, I was told to keep my heart rate below 135. It was actually super entertaining. Almost like a game. I kept staring at my Garmin heart rate stats, amazed at how my heart rate changed throughout the run. Especially on hills. So interesting!

Next weekend I’m doing a preview ride for the Rev3 Quassy 70.3. It’s basically like a group ride, but they take you along the raceday course and you get a fancy bib and advice and everything. This 56 mile course will be my longest ride ever. I’m a little nervous; I know it’s super hilly and really technical:

Lastly…and very importantly…I have a pretty sweet sunburn on both my hands. Even though I alwayyyys preach about sunscreen, I forgot to put it on the back of my hands. Failure.

Enjoy your weekend! Also, shoutout to Leslie who I’m sure is dominating the Wildflower Tri today, and all my friends running NJ (and anything else) this weekend!